Smart homes and buildings with automated controls for heating and air conditioning, lighting, audio visual entertainment, and similar devices have been predicted for decades. While various forays have been made into home and building automation, ubiquity in the market is still lacking. Some of the more prominent reasons for the lack of affordable automation devices are the expense of automation devices and the difficulty and labor needed for interconnecting the devices throughout a structure.
Proprietary wireless communication standards have rapidly developed over the last few decades. It is now common to see people communicating over wireless telephones and using the internet over wireless data links. The wireless revolution has enabled people to stay connected through the use of cell phones and wireless internet as never before. People can now use their telephones and computers throughout homes, schools, and offices without the need for expensive, built in wiring.
However, many of the wireless standards that have been developed are not congruent with the needs of an automation system. A truly automated home or building can involve controlling dozens of devices, including lights, switches, thermostats, security systems, audiovisual equipment, and so forth. Devices constructed using standards such as IEEE 802.11 are usually too expensive and power intensive to be effectively used to control the dozens of devices in a cost effective manor. Other wireless protocols such as the popular Bluetooth standard can also be too expensive, power intensive, and have a limited range.
To overcome these problems a new type of wireless system has been developed. Ad-hoc networks, also referred to as mesh network, use wireless protocols such as the IEEE 815.15.4 (Zigbee) standard. Mesh networks use a plurality of nodes, with each node being able to communicate to other neighboring nodes that are within range. Thus, each node can act as a repeater. This allows for wireless systems employing mesh networks to use inexpensive, lower power transceivers since each node only needs to broadcast as far as a neighboring node, which can then pass the data on to another node until the data reaches a controller or other destination connected to a wired system. These lower power, lower cost wireless systems enable economical automation systems to be installed in houses, buildings, and factories without the need for complex infrastructure upgrades. However, installation of a dense mesh network, with an adequate number of controls for the potentially dozens of automatable devices to be controlled within a building, can create complexities within the network that can reduce network operability and efficiency.